Blog: From Genes to Governance: Reflections on the ISBR Symposium in Ghent

December 3, 2025 | Guest Author

Nick Loschin | At ISBR 2025, scientists and regulators grappled with gene editing, governance, and the path toward responsible innovation....

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Nick Loschin at the University of Stavanger, Norway

Blog: Crossing Boundaries: Risk, Resilience, and Emerging Technologies in a Global Context

July 8, 2025 | Guest Author

GES Scholar Nick Loschin and Executive Committee member Dr. Khara Grieger traveled to Norway and Denmark this summer to share research on emerging technologies, highlighting how global collaboration, cross-boundary dialogue, and responsible innovation are essential for navigating risk and resilience in an increasingly complex world....

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Blog: Beyond Innovation: Putting Humanity at the Heart of Biotechnology

April 29, 2025 | Guest Author

Modesta Abugu | Attending the 2025 Spirit of Asilomar Conference shifted my scientific perspective profoundly—highlighting the urgent need to center ethics, equity, and human values in biotechnology....

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Blog: The Spirit of Asilomar and the Future of Biotechnology

April 22, 2025 | Guest Author

Surabhi Metpally | A reflection on Dr. Katie Barnhill’s GES Colloquium talk about the 2025 Spirit of Asilomar and the Future of Biotechnology summit, and how it revisits the legacy of scientific self-regulation sparked by the original 1975 conference....

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Blog: “To the USDA, and Beyond!”: The Intersection of Governance and Biotechnology Innovation

May 30, 2024 | Guest Author

Christopher J. Gillespie | Recently, on National Agriculture Day, Dr. Jennifer Rowland, the Biotechnology Coordinator at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), gave a talk at the GES Colloquium that left a “big footprint”....

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GES panel on the Biotech EO at the Society for Risk Analysis annual meeting, December 11, 2023, Washington, DC. Left to right: Greg Jaffe, Georgia Lagoudas, Zack Brown, Nick Loschin, Ilaria Cimadori, Christopher Cummings, and Khara Grieger (moderating)

Blog: Interdisciplinary Reflections on the U.S. Executive Order on Advancing Biotechnology and the Bioeconomy

January 24, 2024 | Khara Grieger

In December, GES-affiliated faculty and students participated in a roundtable discussion on the EO at the recent Society for Risk Analysis Annual Meeting, held in Washington, DC. The roundtable aimed to discuss the strengths and limitations of the recent EO on bio-innovation from interdisciplinary perspectives, highlighting aspects of biotechnology regulation and risk in particular....

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Apply to the GES Minor Fellowship

January 18, 2024 | Patti Mulligan

  Please complete this application in its entirety and remember to click ‘Submit Application’ at the end. If you need any assistance, please contact us at gesocietycenter@ncsu.edu or (919) 515-2596.  ...

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Dolphin Tank: Team-based innovation competition to win prizes!

March 14, 2023 | Patti Mulligan

Come join us for a team-based competition to develop pitches for biotechnology innovations that are socially responsible. Participants each receive a $30 Amazon gift card, Free Lunch & a chance to win a Wolfpack sweatshirt....

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Gould, Fred, et al. "Toward product-based regulation of crops: Current process-based approaches to regulation are no longer fit for purpose." Science 377, 1051 (2022). DOI: 10.1126/science.abo3034 Figure 1. We propose a strategy for evaluating crop varieties using omics technologies [adapted from (1)] to compare a new genetically engineered (GE) or non-GE variety to a set of varieties that are currently in markets.

Publications Relevant to the new Executive Order on Biotechnology

September 29, 2022 | Patti Mulligan

On September 12, 2022, President Joe Biden signed Executive Order 14081, Advancing Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Innovation for a Sustainable, Safe, and Secure American Bioeconomy, intended to “accelerate biotechnology innovation and grow America’s bioeconomy across multiple...

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Photos of Jason Delborne and Katie Barnhill-Dilling

NC State University Awarded BioMADE Funding to Advance U.S. Bioindustrial Manufacturing by Educating Future Workers

March 3, 2022 | Guest Author

With a new project funded by BioMADE — led by professor Gary Gilleskie — NC State will help train the workforce needed to advance bioindustrial manufacturing in the U.S....

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Genetically modified mosquitoes could be released in Florida and Texas beginning this summer – silver bullet or jumping the gun?

June 3, 2020 | Jennifer Kuzma

Jennifer Kuzma, June 3, 2020 | Release of GM mosquitoes in Florida is imminent. But a multidisciplinary team of scientists believe that more studies are needed first. They encourage a publicly accessible registry for GM organisms....

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Jonas Monast – Natural Resources Law as a Model for Biotechnology Governance | GES Colloquium

August 19, 2019 | Patti Mulligan

Jonas Monast joins us from the UNC School of Law to discuss the emerging conflicts between biotechnology governance and natural resources management, and explore how existing natural resources laws can inform biotechnology governance challenges....

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Figure 1 Summary of GE Plants Oversight in Proposed Rule - J. Kuzma

Biotechnology Oversight Gets an Early Make-Over by Trump’s White House and USDA: Part 2 – The USDA-APHIS Rule

July 2, 2019 | Jennifer Kuzma

Jennifer Kuzma, July 2, 2019 | USDA-APHIS has proposed an oversight process for GE crops that appears to be a significant departure from the current one. This article discusses the features of the proposed new rule, along with its strengths and weaknesses and my recommendations for how it should be amended. ...

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Word cloud created from the language in the Regulation of Ag Biotech Executive Order

Biotechnology Oversight Gets an Early Make-Over by Trump’s White House and USDA: Part 1—The Executive Order

June 18, 2019 | Jennifer Kuzma

Jennifer Kuzma, June 18, 2019 | Last week, the Trump administration set the tone for its oversight of agricultural biotechnology (ag biotech) through two major actions: 1) Signing the Modernizing the Regulatory Framework for Agricultural Biotechnology Products Executive Order; and 2) Proposing a draft rule on the Movement of Certain Genetically Engineered Organisms (GEOs), changing how USDA reviews GE plants....

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Todd Kuiken Seminar: CRISPR and Risk (RIT)

February 25, 2019 | Patti Mulligan

CRISPR and RISK - A Critical Discussion of Gene Editing; Rochester Institute of Technology, Feb 26, 2019. Speakers: Stephen Hilgartner, Cornell University, Department of Science and Technology Studies; Todd Kuiken,  Senior Research Scholar, Genetic Engineering and Society Center North Carolina State University; Patti Durr, RIT/NTID, Department of Cultural and Creative Studies...

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